Waukesha County

Laurel Walker | In My Opinion

Sometimes democracy can be a hot mess

After watching the Republican and Democratic conventions for the past couple of weeks, I've had my fill of the big picture for a while.

So how about a couple of narrow-focus snapshots instead? Local folks practicing the messy art of grass-roots democracy.

In Ozaukee County, an official Mequon landmark is either a historic gem worth preserving or an obstacle to progress.

In Waukesha County, Delafield's lakeside residents along Milwaukee St. are trying to scale back what they call the city's "million-dollar mile" - a repaved road with new storm sewers and pedestrian paths that will lead to the demise of either 160 or 57 trees, depending on which side you ask.

Normally my sympathies lie with trees and landmarks.

In the cases at hand, however, I'm not ready to chain my body to the estimated 260-year-old white oak tree on city right of way that adjoining property owner Jim Buege has come to prize as his own. Or lie down in front of a bulldozer headed toward the 1800s Thoreau School - home to American Legion Post 457, which owns it, and Bangers bar whose operator, Joe Deutsch, rents it.

These are fights the locals are waging. The more they learn and participate, the better, I think.

Mequon Mayor Curt Gielow calls the dispute over the Legion Post, just west of the busy and developed intersection of Cedarburg and Mequon Roads "a bit of a tempest in a teapot." He said it's not the city's project; let the Legion do what it wants with its property.

Deutsch says he's got the community - 800 petition signers - behind him. He wants to buy the old school and continue to use it for his bar and entertainment business, but instead he's gotten a letter of eviction effective Oct. 31.

American Legion Post Commander Bill Prahl says he's got a vote of his membership - close and contentious - to sell the building to developers who'd tear it down and give veterans a new accessible hall plus cash. There's an accepted offer, he said, but the developers didn't return my calls.

The mayor questions whether the building even qualifies as a landmark because of dramatic alterations made.

Landmarks Commissioner Don Silldorff, a 31-year member, is certain it is, adding, "No one has come before the Landmarks Commission to begin the process. When that happens, it will be resolved. And not until," he said.

In Delafield, the Milwaukee St. project stands at $900,000 - just shy of the $1 million limit that would force a referendum, which makes opponents suspicious. They've got a website - www.blacktopparadise.blogspot.com - to thoroughly tell their side.

City Administrator and Public Works Director Tom Hafner said nearby property owners largely backed the project, widened by a pedestrian path, at a spring informational meeting. No private property will be taken, though residents get accustomed to thinking city right of way belongs to them. Though trees will be lost, he said, they are nowhere near the number claimed on yard signs.

Hafner said the project will improve water drainage - problems opponents say is because of poorly conceived developments upstream and uncared-for drainage ditches.

Now the Common Council gets to decide in its fall budget review. Undoubtedly, they'll have plenty of people telling them what to do.